Video of Tsunami Student Tour

Below is the video produced on the tour:

Pamela Boardman, teacher at the Ysgol Friars High School in Wales

The time in Banda Aceh was an incredible experience. I had not fully understood the extent of the work carried out by Education International. The highlight of the trip was the visits to some of the completed Primary schools. All of the children were excited and pleased to see us and proudly showed us their classrooms and their work. We went to the official opening of one of the schools. We were treated like VIP’s and watched with delight the welcome ceremonies performed by the children in their traditional costumes.

On another day we visited one of the secondary schools, all of the pupils turned out to welcome us, hundreds of them. We attended a trauma counselling session, and then listened while 2 of the students told their stories of the tsunami. They were very brave to stand up in front of so many people and tell such emotional stories. At the end of this session all of the students in our party stood up and told the pupils in the class how they felt about Banda Aceh. They were greeted with cheers and applause, and then the pupils all clamoured around us and wanted to have their picture taken with us. This was a very emotional experience to see these pupils who had gone through a terrible time showing such courage and joy in life.






On the first day in Banda Aceh we visited the beach where the tsunami had first struck the land. I stood looking out sea and tried to imagine a 30metre wave coming towards me. Behind was a view of destruction, an area of swamp which used to be houses, yet in front of me I was looking at a beautiful sunset over the mountains and sea. This summed up the whole trip, a mixture of sadness, tragedy, beauty, friendship and hope for the future.

The party was made up of people of different ages from 17 to over 60, and 8 different nationalities. By the end of the week we had seen so much that we felt as if we had known each other for years. Everybody agreed that the week has been an amazing and life changing experience. The work done by Education International in Banda Aceh was impressive and largely because of 2 inspirational men Mr Jerome Fernandez and Mr Aloysius Matthews.
Since we have come home I have shown the photographs and talked about the trip with all of my pupils. We are arranging for the 2 students to give presentations in assemblies to each of the different year groups, and to the school council. They have also been invited to give a presentation at the annual conference of the NUT. We are going to establish a link with the secondary school that we visited, and some emails have already been sent. Also we are arranging for publicity in the local newspapers.

HEY EVERYONE !!! :D Emily's finally added to the blog !!

Hey, hope everyone got home safely !!! miss you all !! My appologies for taking so long to put something on the blog, but it has all sunk in now and therefore I am hoping that this might be a little better than something I would have done a week ago when jet lag had the better of me!

Trip home : 15 hour flight as well as the other three flights, I would do it all again if they asked me because I will never ever experience something as amazing and emotional as this again, missing indonesia so much and I wish that I could have another chance to see you lot and all those childrens faces which were so full of enthusiasum and hope again! I'm fully recovered now from my egg eating moment, can't believe i missed the last day!! I HATE EGGS!! LOL !

The thing I gained from the most from participating in this tour is my understanding, instead of sitting at home oblivious to what is happening outside my frount door, I have seen, I have witnessed the wonders and shocks of Indonesia. I have heard the stories that the children, teachers and pupils my age have to tell me about the tsunami and their experiences. I am amazed by the sheer hope and dedication that the students have to learning, it makes me realise how well off I am and how I should be so grateful for my family, friends and education.

Highlight of my trip, wouuld have to be visiting the schools, how can children be so happy? Its so confusing how they are so cheerfull welcoming and warm hearted even though they have lost everything, just makes you think no matter what stands in your way take a leaf from their book, you can always rise above it. I will never forget them running about the playground with the football seeing their little faces light up was touching and wonderful to see.
I will quote the poem from the first briefing in the EI's office which in my opinion really sums up the tour:

"The more you care about others,

The more confidently you act.

There is nothing you cannot do,

No defeat you cannot survive,

No fear you cannot overcome,

When you are concentrated,

heart and soul on helping others!"

Hopefully in the near future we shall all meet up again, and this time I won't eat any egg !! oopsy!!!

Hope everyone is ok and taking care!!! xxx

p.s thank you to everyone for being so welcoming and ACE, you made the trip 10 million times better than it already was xxxx

p.p.s thank you Phuoc and Juliane for sending me some little things when I was ill on the last day the fruit and drink really helped :D xxxxxx

loves xxx Emily xxx

Journey back home! Phuoc Huynh, Australia

The Australians left Banda Aceh on Sunday, so on Saturday we just did a bit of shopping and relaxing. I think we really needed it because the last few days were so jammed packed, we needed a day to collect our thoughts. I also needed to rest a bit because I was extremely tired from staying up until 4am the night before playing card games with my fellow students. But it was so worth it! I introduced the game 'Bloody Mary' to them and hope that they will bring it back to their home town and share it with their friends.

We left the airport at Banda Aceh at 1230pm on Sunday and arrived at Medan about an hour later. The trip from Medan to Jakarta was the worse! Throughout the trip we experience really bad turbulence, so bad that it shook the whole plane and I flew up, off my seat. During that moment, there were people screaming for their lives. What was a bit odd was that they made an announcement that we should fasten our seat belts because we were going to go through some turbulence, AFTER the plane shook. That must of been really reassuring for the passengers because some might think, during the turbulence, that there could be some engine failure or so. I saw that people were embracing the emergency position and holding each others hands because they thought it was going to be all over.

Eventually we arrived at Jakarta, where we had to stay there for another 4hours for our flight out to Sydney. Once we got the the international check-in, we waited in the line for over an hour and waited some more when we had to go through immigration. The flight home was ok, I slept almost right through it. We then landed in Sydney airport at 745am.

Now that I'm actually home I can reflect on my experiences when I'm telling my friends about my trip to Banda Aceh. The first thing they ask me is 'How was your trip?'. I respond by 'Where do I start?' This tour has been amazing! The whole trip has been very confronting and heart-warming. There was so much to see and do. Although I've met so many people their stories remains the same. When asked 'What do you remember most about the tour?', this is a very hard question as I don't have one single answer for it.

The basketball game against Methodist High School was one experience that I'd never forget. We were so unprepared for it because the game was scheduled on the day before and we didn't get a chance to get around to it. Eventually we got a team of 6 and had 2 10min rounds with a 3min break in between. At first we were really tired but once we started playing we were having loads of fun, which was what it was meant to be. Boy, did we get slaughtered?! I thought we would have the height advantage from Rob and Daniel, but we needed more than that! The score was 38 to 13.

Another great thing that came out of this trip was meeting all of the cool students that was apart of this tour. Everyone was so friendly, it made the trip so much more easier because we had pretty much the same expectations before the tour and we all were discovering and exploring new things together. It had been such a blast! Can't believe the tour has finished so soon!

This trip had made me appreciate more things. EI's vision was to provide an 'education for all' by 2015 and I believe that they are on their way of acheiving this vision. They have constructed the most number schools than any other organisation and are yet to open up another 3 within a period of 2 weeks (I think). They have provided student scholarships for those students that have loss both parents in the tsunami, and they've also provided truama counselling for those affected.

As silly as this sounds, I even also appreciate CLEAN drinking water. The water in Banda Aceh was of a murky yellow colour. Each morning and night, I'd brush my teeth and wash my face with bottled water! I felt like such a princess

Well that's all I can write up at the moment. I'll try to keep posted

Take care! Miss you all

(A changed) Phuoc

P.S Oh yeh, it feels great to have my fast internet connection back =)

First Thoughts on returning home.

Back home in rainy old Blighty, typical that when we got into Manchester airport it was cold and wet, I miss the heat already.I’d just like to start this blog by saying that I could never have expected what I experienced whilst I was in Banda Aceh. The memory that will stick with me the longest was probably the visiting of the primary schools, never could I have expected the warm greetings we received by all the children. They were all so happy to see us waving, smiling and cheering. When Natsuko gave the children at the second EI School we visited a football, it brought the whole school together the girls and the boys of all ages chasing after the football with even bigger smiles then we first arrived. I remember leaving that school getting back onto the bus my heart felt heavy and there was a lump in my throat I really wanted to stay there longer to see these children as they were running after the bus once again smiling, cheering and waving us off. I remember when we had dinner on Wednesday hosted by PGRI. We walked in and sat down not really knowing what to expect seeing the stage in front of us. We witnessed an Aceh traditional dance performed by some young boys, this dance truly was something else, recorded it all on the hand held video recorder. After this I met this young man called Erick who was 16, we got chatting and became friends really quickly, it was quite amazing how privileged he felt to have met me, he kept describing as an amazing experience which was definitely the case for me in meeting him. I learnt that at the age of 16 he studies 12 subjects, I at 17 study…4. As the conversation progressed I asked him if he played or followed any sports to which is response was “I don’t have time to play any sports or follow them I am to busy studying for school.” I then realised how much I take everything for granted back home, not bothering to go to school if im maybe just a bit ill or tired made me feel quite ashamed of myself. He also had 3 tests that morning his school starts at 7 in the morning and he was there until well after 10:30 the night before just to come and meet us. I swapped emails with Erick and his friend Aluja so I hope we can keep in contact.I also met some great people when I was out there in Indonesia, basically the whole EI team I thought we got on really well as a group nobody was left out and there was no conflict between anyone. I will remember the last night in particular with the card game “bloody Mary.” The Flight back was very smooth and I hope everyone else had a safe journey back also, hope to speak to you all soon, will add to this blog tomorrow also.But for now, goodbye

Martin Jones, UK

CANT WAIT TO SEE EVERYONES PICTURES :)